The New Persephone
by MariaHarundinis
Summary: A story about friendship, abduction and Greek mythology
1. Chapter 1

Penny glanced at her watch, starting to get annoyed. They had agreed to meet 10 minutes ago. What took Nathan so long? As she sighed she saw her breath form little wisps of vapour_**. **_She wrapped her coat more closely about her and stuffed her hands deep in the pockets. It was only October, but the nights were already getting really cold.

Why didn't Nathan just hurry and show up! If he wasn't here in 5 minutes, she would go in without him. On the other side of the road she saw people arriving and streaming into the building for the exposition on Greco-Roman mythology, an exposition she couldn't wait to see! Nothing interested her more than mythology, and she knew for sure Nathan was no different! So why was he this damn late?

Penny had first met Nathan 3 years ago in a bookstore, when they had both grabbed for the same copy of a book on myths and legends around the world. Quite nerdy circumstances, as she was well aware, but they definitely typified both their characters. Since it was the last copy of the book they had both seemed pretty determined to have it, throwing arguments back and forth why he or she should really have that volume, when all of a sudden Nathan had given in and__said: 'All right, you can have it. On one condition: you'll join me for a coffee later today.' He had added a huge, radiant smile which had immediately won her over, and after she had paid for her new addition they had gone to the nearest Starbucks where they spent hours talking about anything and nothing. And so their friendship was born.

Penny looked at her watch again. Now it was getting extremely late, even for Nathan's standards. She started to get worried and dug up her cell phone from her handbag. As soon as she started calling him, though, she heard footsteps approaching behind her. There he was! She immediately hung up the phone and jokingly said: 'I thought you had ditched me for someone else.' Turning around, however, she didn't meet his familiar smile and friendly blue eyes. The face she saw wa_**s**_n't familiar or friendly at all, and before she could do as much as open her mouth, everything went black...


	2. Chapter 2

Penny slowly opened her eyes, her head throbbing with pain. She felt like she had been run over by a bus. Several times. Why was she feeling this terrible? She couldn't remember a thing of what had happened. She blinked repeatedly in an attempt to focus her eyesight and moaned when everything around her looked blurry and started spinning.

'I'm sorry about that,' a voice suddenly said behind her. 'You'll probably feel better in a couple of minutes.'

Immediately everything came back. The exposition, the long wait for Nathan, the stranger popping up behind her… Did this voice belong to that stranger? Startled by this idea she jumped up from her bed, to immediately fall back again, struck down by an intense burst of dizziness and nausea. She closed her eyes again and moaned, more loudly than the first time, partly because she felt like her head could explode any second, and partly because, since she was feeling this bad, she couldn't do anything and was completely at the mercy of this stranger in her bedroom.

Wait a minute… She was in her bedroom? Penny hadn't even realised this until right now because she had still been coming to, but how could she be in her bedroom? When she had been attacked, she had been outside, and not even near her apartment. What sort of an attacker would take his victims back to their own place? And how did he even know where she lived? What the hell was going on?

Terrified of what might happen but also starting to become a bit curious she tentatively reopened her eyes to slits, fixing her look on only one point at a time. As she didn't get overwhelmed by a new wave of nausea, she slowly turned her head towards where the voice had come from. Though her vision was still a bit blurry, she could distinguish a figure in the corner of her room, sitting on the chair next to her writing desk. She couldn't make out his features clearly, since he was wearing a long, black cloak with the hood pulled over his head, but she was sure that he was looking at her. She tried to look back at him as bold and as confident as possible, but apparently he saw right through that disguise, as he said: 'You don't have to be afraid of me, Penny.'

Instead of calming her down, this only made her more scared than she already was. He knew her name. Why did he know her name? Who was this man and what did he want with her?

'I know this has to be really confusing for you, and I sincerely apologise. I swear that I have no bad intent whatsoever,' the man went on rather formally. 'This was just the only way I could save you.'

'Save me? From what?' was all Penny could utter. This was just all too much for her. She didn't understand at all. What was going on here?

'From Persephone of course,' the man said matter-of-factly, as if this was so obvious it hadn't even been worth mentioning.

'Persephone? As in the goddess Persephone?' Penny couldn't hide her surprise. The only Persephone that she could immediately think of, was the Greek goddess of the underworld. But what did a mythical character have to do with all of this, with her?

'Yes, of course the goddess Persephone,' he sighed, a mixture of doubt and irritation clearly lacing his response. 'I thought you were pretty familiar with our history. Are you feeling all right? The effects of the drug should have worn off by know.' His voice received an additional hint of concern.

Now it was Penny's turn to become irritated. First this man abducted her and came up with some mental story about saving her from Persephone, a mythological character who didn't even exist in real life, then she wasn't all too lucid to begin with as an aftereffect of the abduction, and _he_ was surprised that she didn't put everything together right away! What did he expect? But as a matter of fact, she was starting to feel better. Her head didn't feel as if it was filled with a thick fog anymore and she could even see everything quite clearly again. The drug did indeed appear to be wearing off.

Wait a minute…

'You drugged me? What did you have to drug me for!' All of a sudden she had lost all her fear for the stranger, and the only thing that was left was anger. Anger because he had abducted her, anger because he had drugged her, anger because she had been totally helpless and at his mercy, anger because he had ruined her entire evening and because she had no idea what was going to happen next. If only Nathan knew what had happened, then he could…

Nathan.

He had been extremely late. What if something bad had happened to him? What if she wasn't this man's first victim. What if he… And just like that, her fear returned.

'What did you do to Nathan? Where is he?'

'By now he will be long gone. You cannot help him anymore.'

'What? No! What have you done to him? Who _are_ you?'

Finally the man turned fully towards her and took off his hood. 'My name is Hermes.'


	3. Chapter 3

**N/A - Hi, I've decided to move this story to fictionpress . com. It just seemed more appropriate there, since this is more an original story involving gods and goddesses than a fanfiction on those gods. I'm new to publishing stories online, so I simply didn't know at first :) . So from now on, you can find additions on this story there, under the same title, and I'll probably remove it here in a couple of days.**

**Should anyone wish me to continue publishing it here as well, however, just tell me, and of course I will :)**

**Love, M.**


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